Tess Reid's Beyond Two Souls: Mad Girl's Love Song
by RogueMetamorph
Summary: HIATUS: When Tessa Reid faints in the middle of a presentation at school, she realizes the numbness she's had all her life wasn't just a medical issue. She can actually move outside of her body like a... ghost. Her life becomes complicated as she befriends others like her, like Jodie and Aiden, and gets caught up with entities and the Infraworld... Sort of an OC/Aiden.
1. Dropping Dead

**Mad Girl's Love Song**

* * *

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own **_**Beyond: Two Souls**_** (the game, dialogue, characters, story arcs, or etc.). I don't own the rights to the poem **_**Mad Girl's Love Song**_** by Sylvia Plath. I don't own **_**Blood Bound**_** by Patricia Briggs (because she is my queen and I love her to death for her magnificent writing). I also don't own any other book, movie, song, poem or character I may have mentioned along the way. I just so happened to use it for non-profitable fun in my spare time.**

* * *

**Chapter 1 – Dropping Dead**

* * *

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead  
I lift my lids and all is born again  
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red  
I think I made you up inside my head

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed  
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane  
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead  
I think I made you up inside my head

I fancied you'd returned the way you said  
But I grow old and I forget your name  
I should have loved a thunderbird instead  
At least when spring comes they roar back again

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead  
I think I made you up inside my head"

* * *

I always knew that there was something a bit different about the way I had been made up. It wasn't that I looked any different from the normal twelve year old. It wasn't that I'd managed to do anything extraordinary or noteworthy before I'd turned twelve. Nothing interesting had even happened to tip anyone off that I was different. Besides the myriad of health issues and constant numbness that the doctors had been trying to explain for years, I was normal.

It was just… I'd always felt… _off._

When I touched things, it wasn't just the texture or weight I was feeling. When I looked at people, it wasn't just their face and expressions I was seeing. When I read, it wasn't just the words I was taking in. When I felt a breeze on my skin, it wasn't just the soft push of air on me that I felt. When I slept, I didn't feel like I was falling or see myself in a gumdrop land… I didn't dream. When someone was next door, I knew it whether I heard them or not. And sometimes… sometimes I didn't feel as alone as everyone else. Even when my fingers went numb or half of my body fell out of my control… it wasn't just numbness I felt… I felt more than that.

I think that's why I liked _Mad Girl's Love Song_ so much. I first read it in a little poetry book that I got from my school's book fair. I never understood the poem at all but I never really thought that was the point of poetry. You aren't always supposed to understand what the author meant. I think it was the fact that it made no sense, that just the individual phrases made so much sense to me, that the poem spoke to me so much. I connected to each line in my own odd way.

_**I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead…**_

When I was twelve, most of the numbness I'd lived with since birth had been suppressed by medicines I didn't know the names of. On the worst days the numbness was a faint tingling that settled in my fingertips like a stinging. It was something that I was used to and had been explained away by medical explanations and diet supplements. No one really figured that my whole body would suddenly go numb in the middle of a class presentation.

I remember explaining to the class why I'd chosen to study Bill Clinton… something along the lines of there being no books left on cool people to study. I remember the stinging in my fingertips turning into a cold numbness that was traveling up my arms like sticking my arms in cold water. The sensation continued up in the same way it was traveling up my legs.

And then I shut my eyes and the numbness left me cold for only a moment before everything shifted and dropped out from under me. It was like I'd been at the bottom of a swimming pool and suddenly kicked off to surge to the surface. And when I opened my eyes… I didn't open my eyes…

_**I lift my lids and all is born again…**_

It wasn't that I was opening my eyes… it was as if I'd never closed them in the first place. I was just there, no explanation needed beyond that I was _there_, hovering and standing at the same time. I wasn't standing like I was used to, gravity pressing down on me like a weight, but I wasn't flying because I was tethered. I was still me but I was somewhere else… something else…

Even the world had changed in the moment between when I'd closed my eyes and opened them again. Everything had faded into varying shades of grey, the light of the sun creating strange effects on the table tops. It wasn't that I was in the classroom anymore, but that I could feel the classroom around me and didn't care about the shapes. They were just something to notice but no longer had a physical effect on me.

_**The stars go waltzing out in blue and red…**_

As I looked around, my friends and classmates were all grey like the room… but yet they still had color, meaningful rather than the neon pink shirts or blue of their jeans. Not even the orange, black and blonde of their various hair colors or the tan and brown of their skin tones seemed to matter anymore. Instead, just outside of them like a light shining from behind them that they were blocking with their bodies, they were various colors. Some were bright blues, dull oranges, dark reds and even a shining purple.

And then they all started freaking out. Some of them were staring as if frozen in place and shocked into silence. Some of the boys were shouting as they got to their feet, some of the girls shrieking as they started yelling for Mrs. McGrath to do something. My friend, Lizzie O'Neil, was sitting in the front crying into her hands. Claire Schmidt came running up to me though she wasn't looking at me at all… she was looking down at my feet.

Had I vomited or something?

_**I think I made you up inside my head…**_

I looked down to see what everyone was freaking out about… and I could attest to the fact that there was nothing as horrifying as seeing yourself looking so dead. I could remember the initial confusion of seeing the crumbled heap on the ground, my eyes wide open even though I wasn't seeing out of them. There was nothing in them, just dull eyes that stared.

_Oh God. _

It was like it wasn't my body that was staring into nothingness, wasn't my body that was lying on the ground below me, wasn't really me that Claire was trying to wake up. It wasn't me. It was like this hadn't happened and I wasn't suspended above my own body, staring down, looking out at my friends and classmates. It wasn't. It couldn't.

_**I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead**__**…**_

"Tessa?!"

"Oh my God!"

"What happened? Is she going to be okay?!"

"Is she dead?"

_**I lift my lids and all is born again**__**…**_

"She just dropped to the ground,"

"Claire! Is she okay?!"

"Tessa! Tessa, _wake up!_ Tessa?!"

"Step away from her, Claire. I'm calling an ambulance,"

_**The stars go waltzing out in blue and red…**_

"What's happening?!"

"Is she dead?"

_**I think I made you up inside my head…**_

* * *

**Author's Note:**** I want a piece of the action and so I created my own gifted character to add to the game. I tried to make her as unique/not Mary Sue/real/unobtrusive as possible as I wrote her along with trying to stay true to Jodie, Aiden, and the world of _Beyond: Two Souls_. However, if you don't think I accomplished that, tell me in a review and I'll figure out how to fix it. BUT! If you come into this not liking the premise and you think OCs are dumb… go the hell away.**

**Also, I'd like to make it clear that I believe that Aiden grew up with Jodie. This meaning that a baby Aiden was floating around with a baby Jodie, and a toddler Aiden was playing with blocks with toddler Jodie when they were little kids. This also meaning that they both went through puberty (sort of).**

**AND! I have a Pintrest board for Tessa if you're interested. Just look up the board "Tessa Reid", "Beyond: Two Souls", and "Mad Girl's Love Song" to find the board to get a good look at her. **

**Hope you enjoy the story and review!**


	2. First Interview

**Mad Girl's Love Song**

* * *

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own **_**Beyond: Two Souls**_** (the game, dialogue, characters, story arcs, or etc.). I don't own the rights to the poem **_**Mad Girl's Love Song**_** by Sylvia Plath. I don't own **_**Blood Bound**_** by Patricia Briggs (because she is my queen and I love her to death for her magnificent writing). I also don't own any other book, movie, song, poem or character I may have mentioned along the way. I just so happened to use it for non-profitable fun in my spare time. **

* * *

**Chapter 2 – First Interview**

* * *

The lab smelled like a doctor's office. It had the same sickeningly clean smell to it that I'd gotten used to during my time at the hospital. Even the generic plastic and metal chairs with the random plants reminded me of a doctor's office.

Right now my parents were talking to the doctor/scientist at length about my medical history and what had brought them here. This meant that I had been sitting out in the waiting room for hours. But I tried to ignore it as I brought my feet up onto my chair and shifted the book in my hands, trying to pay attention to what my favorite character was saying. It was unnervingly quiet there but I used it to my advantage as I read my book.

My parents had driven me three long hours to the little lab on a military base in the hopes of understanding what had happened to me. They might have been content to listen to the doctors tell them that it was some form of understated narcolepsy that had been agitated by my inability to bring in enough oxygen through my lungs… but then there had been the flying water bottles and slamming doors. Part of it had been me being bored and the other part had been emotional outbursts that had sent things flying across the room. So once I was released from the hospital with a number of pamphlets and medications, my parents had made calls to anyone they could think of. That brought me to this lab.

"Tessa?"

I looked up as my mom walked out of the office with my dad trailing behind her. "Dr. Dawkins would like to talk to you now,"

I frowned at her.

"_Come on_,"

I sighed as I closed my book, stuffing it into my oversized purse. I traded places with my mom as my dad sat down in the open chair beside her, leaving me to go to the door. I made sure to show them just how much I hated this as I trudged through the office door.

It was a broom closet of an office if I'd ever seen one. Even my guidance counselor had had one bigger than this… my closet was bigger than this. Every part of the room was being utilized to store something; bookcases lining the walls, filing cabinets stuffed to the brim, piles of folders teetering on every flat surface. The only clear spot was the area in front of the desk with two chairs where visitors were supposed to sit and where my mom had apparently left her scarf by accident.

The man behind the desk was wearing a suit and tie instead of a white lab coat like I'd been expecting, but he had the typical nerd glasses like in the movies. He looked up as I entered, smiling kindly and making wrinkles appear around his mouth and at the corner of his eyes. He had the worst haircut and the widest mouth I'd ever seen but the smile saved him.

"Hello, Tessa. Come in," he greeted in a warm voice, as I closed the door behind me. "My name is Nathan. Nathan Dawkins,"

He gestured for me to sit in one of the chairs as I stood with my back to the door, shifting the strap of my bag on my shoulder in sudden shyness. I sat down in the red chair closest to the door, feeling the tight awkwardness clench in my chest as I clasped my hands in my lap. I was painfully shy around people in a one-on-one setting. Give me a presentation any day (unless I faint and turn into a ghost in the middle of it), but don't ask me to sit comfortably through a parent-teacher conference.

"Hi," I squeaked, looking up at him through the fringe of my blonde hair shyly.

"There's no need to be nervous," he assured me, which didn't help at all. "I just thought it would be a good idea for us to have a little chat… get to know each other a little better,"

Even though he seemed like a nice guy, I knew this all had to do with figuring out what had happened to me. He was a scientist at a lab who my parents had gone to when I'd exhibited weird abilities. There wasn't any real interest in knowing me any better. However, as quick as that would make the interview, I wasn't going to bring that up to him. Even the thought of making a full sentence made my stomach curl and my hands go numb.

"K,"

Dr. Dawkins nodded and smiled. "I don't know if your parents told you, Tessa, but my job is to study strange events and then try to explain them…"

I nodded. That was pretty much the generic definition to what a scientist did, though the "strange" was usually left out of it now that the human race knew about cells and stuff.

"… Like what happened to you," he continued.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and dropped my eyes to my lap.

"So… your parents tell me that you're in sixth grade this year. How is that going for you?"

I shrugged.

"Do you have any friends?"

"Yeah," I nodded, flashes of my friends faces in my head… of them crying because they thought I was dead. "Lizzie and Claire, I guess,"

He nodded. "Your parents told me about a presentation you had a while back. Can you tell me about that?"

I frowned and shifted again, feeling the tightness in my chest quicken then numbness in my hands as I debated on what to say. Luckily it seemed that my silence had gone on for too long because he felt the need to ask me a new question.

"What was your presentation about?"

"Bill Clinton,"

He nodded. "And how did you feel during the presentation? Were you scared? Excited? Nervous?"

"Not really," I evaded, twisting my hands in my lap despite how dead they felt.

"Can you tell me how you felt?"

I frowned down into my lap. "Uh… I, um… I felt cold," I told him honestly, remembering back while trying to block out the fear. "My fingers were numb… Like they always do,"

He nodded again, pulling out a fold I could remember Mom bringing in with her. "You parents told me that you've had numbness since you were very young. The doctors diagnosed it as an inability for oxygen to diffuse into your bloodstream and into your extremities," He read over the file for a second longer before looking up at me again, causing me to drop my eyes back to my lap. "Do you think that's why you went into a coma?"

I shifted in my seat uncomfortably, keeping my eyes firmly on my hands which felt dead now. I could feel the sensation moving up my arms but I didn't say anything, just tried to will it to stop before I passed out in the middle of his office. I didn't want to talk about this anymore, didn't want to answer him, didn't want to know what was happening to me. I just wanted it all to be some sort of bad dream even though I knew it wasn't.

I'd never had a dream before.

"Tessa?"

I shrugged at him, keeping my eyes down.

"It's alright, Tessa," he assured me, his voice softening again. "You can tell me,"

I sighed, lifting my eyes to meet his shoulder. There was a white piece of lint clinging to his shoulder, right below the seam of the lab coat. "I… it felt the same. My figures were numb but then all of me started going numb,"

"And then you fainted,"

I nodded. "Yeah,"

"Did anything odd happen before you passed out?" he asked, interested. "Did you see anything or feel anything? Did you have any strange dreams?"

I quickly shook my head. "I don't dream,"

I could see his eyebrow raise out of the corner of my eye but I remained silent.

"Your parents told me that strange things began to happen in your hospital room. Like things moving that shouldn't, the lights flickering… Did you know that?"

I nodded again.

"Do you know why that was happening?"

I shook my head, dropping my eyes to a chip in the paint on his desk. I knew why they had happened, that I'd been the one to cause them, but I didn't want to tell him that. I'd rather not be told that I was a freak of nature or have my parents be angry with me. I just wanted to go back to school and be a normal girl with an intense shyness. I didn't want things to change any more than they already had.

Suddenly Dr. Dawkins sighed and shifted in his seat, making me jump in surprise. "Tessa… did something or… _someone_… make those things happen in your hospital room?"

I shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, keeping my eyes on the chip on his desk. "I don't know,"

"It's alright, Tessa. I just want to know," he assured me, leaning forward in his seat. "Do you know what happened? Can you tell me?"

I didn't want to. I really didn't. I was freaked out enough by the fact that I'd been separated from my body and hadn't been able to go back to normal for an entire week. I was still unsure whether everything with Haily and the slamming door had happened. I would have rather it have been some sort of weird dream… but I'd never dreamt before… and no one had even said it was like that. But I knew that this was all stuff Dr. Dawkins wanted to know about. And so, I started talking.

"I… I wasn't…" I frowned, not sure how to explain it. I could feel the numbness working across my shoulder blades and tingling at my toes, but I ignored it. I was here so that he could figure out what had happened, help put my family at ease. "I felt numb at first but it was like how it was before the doctor's pills. And when I closed my eyes… I wasn't in my body anymore. It was like in the movies but I was still attached,"

He frowned, confused. "_You_ were attached?"

"I was… I was attached to my body… like a cord," I swallowed hard as memories flashed in my mind's eye, images of my body. "I wasn't dead," I told him, meeting his eyes and willing him to understand how important that was. "I _wasn't_ dead,"

"Alright," Dr. Dawkins nodded, surprised but believing. "_Alright_,"

* * *

**Author's Note: Maybe a review? What do you think? Is this worth posting more of for those of you reading this?**


End file.
